Austermeer to Room 207, Sunday Afternoon

[raisedbybooklice]

The carriage ride from Summershall had been...long. Very long. Well over a day and through the night, though they had stopped at an inn for a few hours around luncheon, so she could wash up, change, and have a meal in a chair that didn't move. After the first few hours, she hadn't paid much attention to the landscape out the window, preferring to lose herself in one of her favorite books instead, but the rumble of the carriage wheels over an unfamiliar surface had her glancing up.

And that was how she'd gotten her first glimpse of the sea, through the small square of window. It was more gray than blue and vast and the salt smell reached her even up over this bridge they were crossing (which felt longer than even the fabled Bridge of Saints in Bassbridge, Austermeer's capital city). Her face was pressed into the small gap for the entirety of the crossing, amazed that something could be so big and all-encompassing. She was so taken up with the sea that she nearly toppled out when the carriage door opened.

The driver blinked down at her as she scrambled for balance. "We're here, Apprentice," he said, offering her a hand to help her step out of the carriage. Her chest was being loaded onto a funny vehicle by a woman in clothing unlike she'd ever seen. "This conveyance will bring you the rest of the way," the driver explained. She looked at him in mute dismay; although they'd barely exchanged ten words on the trip, he was from the village of Summershall and at least familiar. Nothing else that she could spot from her vantage point was. "It's too steep and narrow for the horses to get up," he explained gruffly. "Gots t'turn around here unless I plan to get stuck."

Elisabeth nodded and offered her hand. The new driver finished securing her coach and gestured to her. "Into the rickshaw," she said, "And we'll get you up to the dorms quick as you like."

"Oh!" Elisabeth said, eyes wide. "This is a rickshaw then?" She'd run across the word in books, but had no idea what they'd looked like. Already she was learning so many new things!

Unlike the coach, Elisabeth spent the entirely of the rickshaw trip gaping at everything she could see. The town looked like any village in Austermeer, right down to the cobblestones, but nobody she spotted did. And then the town was left behind and they were on a long road going ever upwards, and suddenly there was a castle. "Is that where the king lives?" she called.

The rickshaw driver laughed. "Naw, that's the school!"

Elisabeth pointed at the next huge building. "Is that a palace?"

"Nope!" She was still laughing. "That's where you're gonna live. That's the dorms!"

Elisabeth was still calculating how many grimoires a Great Library the size of the dorms could hold when she was dropped off in front of the doors. There was someone waiting there with a key and her room assignment, sent by the moose, they said, which Elisabeth assumed was some kind of slang because how could a moose send anybody anywhere?

And then she was carrying her carpet bag and her trunk up to her floor - thank goodness only the second because her trunk was heavy, thunking up each step - and into room 207, her home however long until the Director could be convinced to let her return.

[Door and post both open!]

Comments

[seriesofbaddecisions]

Sabine had been drawing with the door to her own room open, so she heard the thunks and poked her head out just in time to see someone go into the room. Still, it was maybe worth seeing what was going on, right?

"Hey, do you need help with more stuff?" she checked from the doorway.

[goldfishontherocks]

Keyleth's new little sibling hadn't shown up at the picnic yesterday after all, but she'd made sure to take note of the roommate assignments list, so at least she knew where this Elisabeth Scrivener was going to be staying.

And she miiiiiight have been coming by every so often to check.

On this latest foray, she saw that the door to 207 was open, and she hurried over to knock on it.

"Hi! Um, is anyone in there?" That was . . . usually the case when the door was open, Keyleth.

[unusual_sith]

Lana was just coming back up from some training in the salle when she saw someone coming in. She stuck her head in the door. "Hello! You must be new." She stuck out her hand. "Lana Beniko."

[bookbeltof_love]

New people, obviously, were very much a Thing Of Interest as Nina leaned her head in on her way back to her dorm room and joined the conga-line of pings.

"Hi!!!!!!!!!!!!" she chirped. "Oh my gosh, like, did you just get here????????????? Do you need any help?????????????????"

A beat.

"Or, like, cookies???????????? I have cookies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Admittedly, those cookies had been going to replenish the snack drawer in her room but, like, new girl meant she could just buy more later, right?

[raisedbybooklice]

Apart from Katrien, her old roommate, no one her age had ever stopped by Elisabeth's room before. So hopefully Sabine would forgive her momentary surprise. "Oh!" she said, jumping to her feet and trying to smooth down her wrinkled apprentice robes. "I - no. This is all I have."

In the whole world, actually. Being a foundling wasn't great for personal possessions. The only reason her robes were new instead of being handed down from other apprentices was because she was too tall for any of the other girls' robes to fit.

"Thank you for the offer, though," she added, belatedly remembering her manners. "I'm Elisabeth."

[raisedbybooklice]

Having one fellow student coming to visit her was a surprise. Two was positively unheard of.

"I am," Elisabeth called from where she was hanging up her robes in the closet. It was like a tiny wardrobe but built into a wall. So clever! "Hello?"

[raisedbybooklice]

"Elisabeth Scrivener," she replied, coming over to shake. "I am, yes. New. Just arrived."

Still trying to get her bearings, but mostly tripping over how different everything was compared to Summershall.

[raisedbybooklice]

Cookies.

Elisabeth's stomach audibly growled at the mention of food. It had been awhile since luncheon and she wasn't sure where one even got food in a place like this. Surely there were kitchens somewhere, but she'd yet to actually get to explore.

"Cookies would be lovely," she said, grateful.

Nina'd had other questions, true, but Elisabeth's brains were kind of caught on 'cookies.'

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"Sabine. I'm down the hall," she said, jerking her thumb in the direction of the room. "Welcome, sorry you missed yesterday's free picnic food."

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina laughed but it was a kind laugh rather than a teasing one.

"No problem!!!!!!!!!!!" she said, looking down at her bag of snacks. "Like, hang on, I'll be right back with plates, okay????????????????? Unless you're fine with eating out of the bag?????????????"

Which, hey, Nina did that, so no judgement there, but Nina mostly made the offer because the girl's clothes didn't look particularly modern and she knew good and well that most places that weren't modern tended to be a bit more... mannerly about things.

[raisedbybooklice]

"There was a picnic?" Elisabeth said, picturing the kind with a basket and blanket. She only had descriptions in books to go on and none of them could prepare someone for a Fandom welcome picnic. "And they shared food later? That seems nice of them."

Elisabeth might not know who 'they' were, but if they were sharing food, she was inclined to think well of them.

[raisedbybooklice]

Ha! Those places must not have hungry library apprentices running about. Mrs. Bellwhether and her staff were admirable cooks, but Summershall had a great many mouths to feed and most of them ranked higher than the latest batch of hungry teens to come to learn the library trade. "Bag is fine," she assured Nina. And then, not wanting to seem too desperate, "I have a handkerchief?"

That was sort of like a plate, right?

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"The school sets it out, to welcome the new kids," Sabine explained. "Which is either fun or absolutely terrible, depending on the person."

Or what mood they were in.

[goldfishontherocks]

"Hi," Keyleth said, waving at her through the doorway. "I've actually been looking for an Elisabeth Scrivener since yesterday, and from what I understand this is supposed to be her room, so . . . if that's not you, you wouldn't happen to be able to tell me where she is, would you?"

[raisedbybooklice]

"Oh!" Beat. "Wait, really?"

Huh. Summershall never did anything so grand each year when the new apprentices arrived. The Director made a small speech at the first dinner to welcome them, but that was as close to a celebration as they got. The rest of the day had been explaining the rules of the Great Library and delineating their chores and duties.

"There are more new students? I'm not the only one?"

[raisedbybooklice]

"I'm Elisabeth," she said, sounding a little worried.

Oh, ink, was she already in trouble for something?

"Looking for me since yesterday? I'm sorry, I was still traveling." Surely she couldn't be in trouble for tardiness if she'd been traveling!

[goldfishontherocks]

"That is you!" Keyleth gave her a brighter smile. "Okay, good. It's just, you know, most of the new students here arrived yesterday, and I'm really sorry you missed the picnic, but you made it! I'm Keyleth, I'm supposed to be your school-assigned big sibling, but you don't have to take that too literally."

[bookbeltof_love]

That was definitely like a plate!

"Plate enough for me," Nina said, taking that as invitation to wander on into the room. "Do you have a preference?????? I've got, like, chocolate chip, jam-filled ones, and shortbread???????????????"

Nina liked cookies, okay?

[seriesofbaddecisions]

"A few. Everyone gets in before classes start," she said. "You thought you'd be the only one?"

[raisedbybooklice]

Elisabeth, who'd considered herself lucky to get shortbread on holidays and festivals, was a little taken aback by Nina having three different types just because. Never mind that she'd never heard of two of them.

"Chocolate chip?" It was more a question than a request, but Elisabeth certainly wouldn't mind trying it. Chocolate was a rare and delicious treat back home.

[raisedbybooklice]

"Why would the school assign me a big sibling?" Elisabeth asked. "Is this because I'm a foundling?"

That seemed...very kind? A little weird, certainly, but kind?

[raisedbybooklice]

Elisabeth nodded. "The Great Library only gets apprentices at the beginning of the new year," she explained. "I didn't know other places did it differently." The Collegium in Brassbridge was on the same schedule, but that was part of the Great Library system as well. "This is my first time at a school," she hastened to explain.

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina paused, studied Elisabeth for a moment, then said, "Let's try them all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

She cleared a space on one of the desks and dug out her own handkerchief.

"Like, I'm Nina by the way???????????????" she said cheerfully, busy with opening up cookie packages and not worried about them going stale since if she and Elisabeth didn't make a dent in them, Vette would make sure they were gone before they weren't good anymore. "I live just down the hall from you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[raisedbybooklice]

Elisabeth had been raised in a library her whole life; for the most part, the exclamation points she was used to came after the word 'science' and usually involved explosions.

These ones apparently came with cookies, which meant that Elisabeth was rapidly becoming a fan. "Are you sure?" she asked. "All those cookies must have been very dear..."

Was that stopping her from reaching for one, though. Look, she had six feet, two inches of girl to keep going.

[bookbeltof_love]

"Don't worry about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she insisted, beaming up and up, though not quite so high as she'd have to beam up at, like, Sidon. "Like, seriously, I know they should be costly--cookies back home aren't anywhere near as common as they are here?????????????? But here, it's like, they're super affordable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Nina was not as short as Vette was--Vette was tiny--but Nina was also not all that tall.

"Actually, like, most food is pretty affordable here???????????" she mused, snagging a few cookies herself and getting out of the way so Elisabeth could take her pick without feeling, hopefully, awkward. "Unless you want to go with really fancy ingredients, and what counts as fancy here is totally not the same as it is back home either???????????????"